Friday, April 22, 2016

Ringo boards the Magic Christian; George “on
holiday.” John returns to London with “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” calls on
Paul at Paul’s and the two work it out: “John was in an impatient mood,” said
Paul, “I was happy to help.” At Abbey Road (studio three, 2pm – 11, April 14,
1969), John sings lead, Paul sings harmony; John’s guitars (lead and acoustic),
Paul’s rhythm and piano; eleven takes—“Take ten was the ‘best’ basic track."

“John recorded these sorts of songs with his new
group, the Plastic Ono Band,” wrote Mark Lewisohn in The Beatles Recording
Sessions, “and had the band existed at this time “The Ballad of John and Yoko”
would probably have been theirs.” Paul’s presence brightens John’s song, brings
to it a depth that, musically, it lacked. John’s solo record, “New York
City”—another account of John and Yoko’s doings—gives a sense
of what “The Ballad of John and Yoko” might’ve sounded like if John hadn’t made
it Beatles. John’s guitar and Stan Bronstein’s sax on “New York City” attempt
to fill it up—it’s manic; “New York City” is aggressive, “The Ballad of John
and Yoko” is sly. Paul’s bass, maracas, hand claps, fun! but, “Christ, you know
it ain’t easy… the way things are going, they’re gonna crucify me”—isn’t it that
sneaky desperation that so startles on Smiths records? “New York City’s”
jabs—policemen who shove, “God’s a red herring in a drag”—are hidden in the mix.

Prince died yesterday. Yesterday, coincidentally,
I stopped at Rhode Island Historical Cemetery no. 41—a plot surrounded by
industrial debris—where’s buried Edwin L. Green, died April 21, 1946, alongside
his wife, Marion, who died in 1911, and their unnamed, infant daughter (“our
only child”). I like to think about John and Paul in the studio together, in
the midst of no little legal acrimony, in the midst of John’s heroin use, days after John’s
marriage to Yoko, a month after Paul’s to Linda, at work. At work and able to
enjoy the pleasure they found in work and in working together.

Two days later George, Ringo, Paul, and John
recorded Harrison’s “Old Brown Shoe.” Philip Norman wrote (John Lennon: The
Life), “…an indifferent George Harrison song ‘Old Brown Shoe’.” Indifferent?
Christ! What about that song is indifferent? Listen to the way George
pronounces his lyric—the blunt “shoe,” the way his delivery pushes and pulls.

“The Ballad of John and Yoko” single, b-side “Old
Brown Shoe,” a neat pivot into the Abbey Road sessions, begun that day with “Something.”